When Stuck on a Problem

Let's look at an activity most of us have done at some time or other. Have you ever cleaned a car, bicycle, raked the lawn, washed the floor or cleaned almost anything. I can remember after washing my car and looking at it; feeling very pleased with how clean it looked. That was until I started walking around the car and all of a sudden streaks and missed spots jumped out at me.

What changed?

It was a combination of changing circumstances (walking) and changing perspective (how I viewed the car) that brought things (dirt) to light. We can use this same principle when we are stuck in our thinking on a problem. We need to find a way to change the circumstances and perspective.

How do we do that?

We could restate the problem in different ways. For example: instead of using I always...; we can think of specific different circumstances when the problem arises such as feeling disliked or angry. Then we need to work on changing our perspective by using our imagination such as looking at it from another persons viewpoint covered in a previous post.

We need to change both circumstances and perspective to be able to gain new insights and solutions.

 

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